[snoj]

For some reason everyone who's not me or my dad are engrossed with all the home redesign shows on TLC, HGTV, etc. Because of the layout of the house, I'll often be "listening in" while they're watching a show.

Now my beef (in this rant) isn't with the faux-designer, stylish, trendy, and quite honestly, ugly "designs" they make for people. No, it's with the shear cheapness of everything. That is, the work that is done only appears to be a cover defects or lack of "features" in a house.

For instance, the other week on Designed to Sell they ended up putting a Stainless Steal looking cover on an older fridge to make the kitchen look oh so modern. Now assuming that this fridge was going to stay with the house, I as a [potential] buyer would feel incredibly ripped off. But even if it wasn't, it's still an old fridge and every time you open it you'd think, "Shit, that's right this is an old crappy fridge that we covered over with shiny metal to make it look cool and awesome on the outside." In other words, an analogy of their empty lives.

</rant>

[Martyr2]

I hear ya. My girl (yeah I was lucky enough to get one... woo hoo) loves those design shows and we watch them just about every weekend. If she isn't watching those she is watching something like "what not to wear". But anyways, you are absolutely right about the cheap stuff they do. They design on a budget which is often ridiculous. Half the time I could have designed it better. Now on Trading spaces where they have only like 1000 dollars to remake a room is stupid and they often make the home owners cry when they see the crap they put in their rooms. Some of the designers have even said right on the show "We don't care what they want. They were the ones that signed up for this show so I am going to put the burlap bags all over the walls and I am painting their couch orange".

They end up having to redo the entire room a few weeks later anyways after they get laughed at by the neighbors.

So the point of this thread....

1) Design shows suck when you go overboard with watching them
2) Don't get on a design show where they don't care whether or not you like what they do
3) If your girl is obsessed with design shows, put on the head phones and dive into the programming. I owe my knowledge of Java alone to design shows. THANK YOU TLC!

[Amadeus]

My wife watches them constantly. At any given time, I have about 40 back episodes on my PVR. Something's gotta give.

[Fygar]

Ha, hey guys, guess what?! I don't have cable! HAh!!! hahahah!!!! ALSO GUESS WHAT?!?!? I don't even have an antenna to get local channels! Case Closed problem solved. Tell your kids to go design something for reaallz.

[Nova Dragoon]

My parents are constantly watching these

[eLliDKraM]

if it's not jack bauer, it's not on my tv.

[Vextor]

I barely have time for TV as it is. Melting my brain with crap like that is absurd. I'd rather enlighten myself with Family Guy, Simpsons and About Jim.

[corliss]

Martyr2, on 13 Sep, 2007 - 10:27 PM, said:

3) If your girl is obsessed with design shows, put on the head phones and dive into the programming. I owe my knowledge of Java alone to design shows. THANK YOU TLC!

Thats exactly what I do, but it dosnt always work like that. I end up getting into the shows due to programming frustration and or my wife tapping my arm "watch this.........blah.....oh it's sooo nice".
I think there need to be a show about apllication programmers and what we do on and off.

[supersloth]

I enjoy being able to do general stuff around the house myself, but anything big i would really rather pay a professional to do it properly.

[WolfCoder]

I don't even have a TV anymore, I just plug all my non-computer stuff into my video monitor (via my capture card using the output from analog device feature).

[no2pencil]

Just keep your women from watching Oxygen, if you have that channel. I can't put my finger on it, & I don't think I want to, but this channel has some effect on them. It's like crack-cocaine. After the 1st time they watch anything on it, they are hooked. & I can't tell you how many women I've seen it change for the worse, & it was the point before the relationship went bad.

Be forwarned!

Just as Fygar suggested, just get rid of the Cable/Television.